Wednesday 21st -- at the Tattoo !

Real time is several days later -- we are now back home. Quite a few of my travel journals have missed the last few days... For this one I will try to wrap it up. Possibly briefy, probably inaccurately. So: 

I duck into the restaurant toilets to put a wool thermal under my shirt. It's an outdoor event in Scotland... temperature low teens (C), a chance of rain.

We leave the restaurant and walk -- just a few hundred metres -- to join the Tattoo queue. It's about seven thirty, gates open at 8:15... there are already hundreds of people queuing. We are next to The Hub, the queue goes out of sight round a corner, then another 100m to the castle entry.

Before we even turn the corner there's a security check. Not a full bag search but a pick up and squeeze. Nothing solid -- ie nothing suspicious -- in my backpack, just more warm clothes.

We're moving!

Once we start moving, it's quite fast. We're soon up the road... in the gates... in the stands... and after picking the wrong side of our section -- we're in our seats. Couldn't be better :-)  Our seats are front row, directly above the spectator entry. And -- as we soon find -- directly above the exit for some of the performers. When a couple of dozen drummers and pipers march out from directly in front of us -- wow!!

I bought the tickets early, in January, when there was still plenty of choice. Then I waited till mid June -- post scan -- to book everything else. That late booking limited choice but all has turned out quite well :-)

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The performance area is about the size and shape of a soccer pitch. Three sides of stands, still mostly empty, hundreds of people still coming in.

Okay, I think, having sat for a few minutes, Okay, it's cold. I make my way to the gents' toilets. No queue for the urinals but I wait a few minutes for a stall. Inside... and I add wool longjohns under my long trousers.

Have you ever changed your trousers in a toilet? It requires great care: take foot out of one shoe, remove leg from trouser leg, get leg into longjohns, back into trousers, back into shoe. Then repeat for other leg... all on a floor where you hope that the damp is just rain but you don't want to touch it... just in case. Not with trousers nor longjohns nor socks. All this in a cubicle designed with just enough space for sitting.

Anyway, it's an experience :-)

I rejoin Deb at our seats.

We put on raincoats. Over that -- and providing full-body shower- and rain-proofing -- we add disposable plastic ponchos. Clever Deb remembering the raincoats and buying / bringing the ponchos. I remember my warm puffy jacket, still in my case in the hotel.

The performance begins. And what can I say? Terrific! It's on tv, each year on New Years Eve. Watch it -- then imagine being there, watching it live. Wow!

Bagpipes by the hundreds. Scores of drummers. Marching music of all types. Formation marching, dancing girls... Yes, really. The Scottish dancers in tartan, of course. Oh my, the women's kilts are being worn short this year :-)

Even amongst the impact of hundreds of people marching, playing, dancing -- New Zealand provides two outstanding acts. Soldiers marching, playing marching music, okay. Then they do a haka and we're not the only ones in the crowd who think it's terrific. Then a separate NZ group do precision formation marching called Ice. It is... amazing. What more can I say?!

I'm starting to think, We must be half way through by now but there's no way this venue could handle an interval. Half way? It's almost finished! One hundred minutes? It just seems so short :-( we could watch it all again... sigh... What a great performance.

The final Scottish tune (Scotland the Brave?). Then the (British) national anthem. We all link hands for Auld Lang Syne. The lone piper plays. And that's it.

Hundreds of performers march (or dance) out, quite a few heading out under our seats. And that's it. The Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo. Well worth the trip :-)

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We walk to the station. Fifteen minutes till our next train, we take five of that to find the platform. It's an easy trip back to Linlithgow, a short walk home. To sleep.

Wow. I'm excited just typing my memories :-)

====    Dr Nick Lethbridge  /  Consulting Dexitroboper
             Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"I would like to think it's possible to construct a society where our orders don't involve slaughtering our own people." ...Gen. Khiruev via Yoon Ha Lee

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dying for you to read my blog: notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au :-)
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